Lipton is going back to basics, in a way, to add new aroma to its U.S. tea business with the first marketing campaign behind its staple black-tea products in America in nearly a quarter-century.

Lipton—the biggest name in tea globally, at over 100 countries and 100 years old—also has held on to its lead in the US CPG dry-tea market for decades, despite essentially having ignored its basic black teas in a marketing sense.

Now, the Unilever-owned brand has launched a campaign aimed at getting US tea consumers to "Drink Positive" (a play on "Think Positive") and to appreciate the uplift that tea can give them. It's also a move to increase the number of tea-drinkers by skewing younger.

The integrated campaign by DDB New York includes TV, digital (liptontea.com, its US Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter) and a visual refresh by making the iconic Lipton packaging a more vibrant shade of yellow.Continue reading...

Want to have your face on a Pepsi can? Well, first you need to sell more than a 100 million albums around the globe and win 16 Grammy awards. At least, that’s what it took for Beyonce to get her face etched into aluminum.

As already announced, Bey is starring in the Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl XLVII halftime show in February as part of the brand's multimillion-dollar return to the Big Game after pulling out in 2010 to reallocate its funds for the social Pepsi Refresh crowdsourced philanthropy platform. Now

Now PepsiCo is expanding its Super Bowl deal with the performer beyond the half-time show into a full-blown partnership in a $50 million deal that will burnish the Pepsi brand and Brand Beyonce, including marketing support for her new album that's dropping next year.Continue reading...

Hostess Brands gets a stay of execution as company and union agrees to mediation today.

Ikea gets green light in India.

GM launches Springo sub-brand in China.

BMW shows off speed with tire-track promotion.

Best Buy posts loss as store sales drop.

Billabong Americas head considers buyout bid for company.

Campbell Soup builds giant Pinterest board out of classic green-bean casserole.Continue reading...

Now that PepsiCo has begun marketing in its flagship Pepsi brand in a much more significant way this year, investors, analysts and other pundits are giving PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi the benefit of the doubt as she continues to unfold her strategy for making the company a major player in better-for-you markets rather than just a traditional purveyor of snack foods and soda beverages. From Australia to India, from vending machines to sweeteners to ad agencies, PepsiCo is pushing to innovate.

Case in point: PepsiCo just announced a pilot rollout of its Pepsi Interactive Vending machine pilot program, allowing consumers in a handful of U.S. locations to not only buy a beverage, but also send virtual gifts, play games and even charge their mobile devices. In addition to buying a Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist Natural, Aquafina or Lipton Green Tea, users can also gift a 20-ounce bottled beverage to a friend by entering the recipient's name and email along with a personalized message. That person, in turn, can send a gift back to the gift-giver — or pay it forward by sending their own gift to another friend.

The next-generation social vending machine is "part of a broader global platform of equipment innovation we're developing to engage consumers," stated Mikel Durham, PepsiCo's Global Growth officer. "The pilot launch of our Interactive Vending equipment is an exciting step in transforming the point-of-purchase experience," added Margery Schelling, the company's Global Innovation officer.Continue reading...

Unilever is doing more and more things right and getting more and more credit for it, from constituencies ranging from investors to global consumers. Now, the task of CEO Paul Polman is to build on the many gains made by the British-Dutch company and its stable of brands.

Over the past three years, Unilever — whose competitive set includes other CPG and health-and-beauty giants including P&G and Colgate-Palmolive — has gained global market share each year, after losing it each year from 2002 to 2008, according to a new report from Sanford C. Bernstein.

While the company performed near the bottom of its global industry clusters for top-line growth from 2001 through 2005, it came in at the middle of the food category last year, ranked No. 2 in beauty and personal care behind Estee Lauder, and came in at No. 1 in the home-care arena.

Polman, a marathon runner, has waged a good race in the nearly four years since he took the helm.Continue reading...

Ace Hardware debuts first-ever paint campaign.

AIG sells $6 billion in AIA shares to help repay bailout loan.

Angie's List creates rare success with paid-content model.

Apple expected to pass 100 million iPad sales by year-end as iPad 3 is unveiled this week and excitement builds for Apple TV.

BP stock rises on proposed $17.6 billion settlement in oil spill.

Carlos Slim's America Movil reportedly starting a Netflix-like online service for Mexico.

Facebook asks advertisers for big investments in exchange for expanding fan base.

Frontier low-cost airline may be relaunched or sold.

GlaxoSmithKline expands in China.

GM struggles to make Volt a sustainable business.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola and Nestle are no longer taking the Nestea Plunge together in America. The two multinationals are dissolving their Beverage Partners Worldwide group, which produces Nestea-branded products, in the United States, Forbes reports, so they can each market their own beverages.Continue reading...

Looking for a burger to go with your Darth Maul Brisk soda? Get thee to Europe, where the Quick burger chain, which made headlines with a halal burger last year, is releasing a trio of burgers to tie into the upcoming 3D release of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in theaters.

As noted on the French Star Wars fan forum Mintinbox.net and picked up on Buzzfeed and A Hamburger Today, the limited edition burgers coming to France, Belgium and Luxembourg include a Sith-tastic reddish Dark Burger, a Yodalicious green Jedi Burger, and a disturbingly black-bunned Dark Vador (Darth Vader) Burger. At least the fine print on Quick's ads remind diners to remember their fruits and veggies.